Arthur Schaper, a supporter of President Donald Trump, exchanges words with counterdemonstrators at a planned “alt-right” rally in Crissy Field on Aug. 26, 2017, in San Francisco. (Stephen Lam/Getty Images)

Last weekend the president of the United States turned his sights away from a humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory ravaged by Hurricane Maria, to a subject more in line with his interests: black football players daring to exercise their right to peaceful protest.

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During the following weekend, that spoiled, queso-colored white supremacist finally started to speak more on Puerto Rico, but largely within the context of responding to San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz’s public pleas for greater federal assistance by assailing her character and making claims that Puerto Ricans “want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”

When he wasn’t feuding with a Puerto Rican politician merely trying to save the lives of her fellow residents, he was undermining his secretary of state and once again threatened war with North Korea. In the midst of the chaos of his own creation, 45 still managed to once again bring up the issue of football players kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and systemic racism. Because he cannot help himself. Because we haven’t suffered enough of his pointless, prejudicial online tirades already.

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Some pundits have argued that this is 45 playing to his base. To size this up largely as a politician playing politics for the sake of pandering to his base is to give a damn fool far too much credit. This is not political strategy; this is an irrational, narcissistic, impulsive, vile racist son of a bitch being himself. It riles up his base because they’re no less ignorant and bigoted than he is. Sadly, despite 45 being a blithering blowhard who likes to bitch and moan whenever nonwhites and women don’t fall in line with his burning-cross-themed way of thinking, as POTUS, he commands the world’s attention.

Since there is no escaping this, I find myself increasingly dismayed and infuriated by the so-called Christians defending the indefensible. I’m not surprised when Republican elected officials do so. They are power-hungry, craven hacks willing to accept anything for the sake of tax cuts and power consumption. And although I’m well-versed in hypocritical Christians, seeing people who profit from ministry going out of their way to speak sweet nothings about this madman remains rage inducing all the same.

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One person that particularly comes to mind is Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress. Last week the First Baptist Dallas minister and adviser to 45 appeared on Fox & Friends to echo his initial thoughts about the players protesting:

These players ought to be thanking God that they live in a country where they’re not only free to earn millions of dollars every year, but they’re also free from the worry of being shot in the head for taking the knee like they would be in North Korea. And I think tens of millions of Americans agree with President Trump when he says they ought to be called out for this.

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Jeffress went on to say that there is a better way to protest but offered no examples. Jeffress has not made any additional comments on behalf of his fellow Americans in Puerto Rico suffering from the gross incompetence of an unapologetic racist; nor has he offered any prayers for peace in the wake of 45 purposely stoking animus with the North Korean government. I do recall the Bible being quite in favor of meaningful protest. In particular, Psalms 94:16 asks: “Who will rise up for Me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for Me against evildoers?”

Nowhere in the Bible does it say once you enter a certain tax bracket, you no longer have the right to speak out against injustice. Nowhere in the Bible does it say, “Your black ass is lucky these nice white folk let you play on the field and make a few million to their billions, so hush up, boy.” Nowhere in the Bible does it say some white evangelical asshole who doesn’t make room for black humanity in his Christianity is the authority on who can and who cannot protest racial injustice.

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As for Robert Jeffress, there is James 4:17: “To him who knows to do good and does not do it ... it is sin.”

To that end, fuck Robert Jeffress, fake-ass Christian. Robert Jeffress and those of similar ilk are folks who pretend to care about white Jesus but in actuality are just capitalists holding a cross for sport. Yet days after Jeffress failed his pop quiz on Christian virtues, a black fool joined him in unholy displays of idiocy in defense of Sweet Potato Saddam.

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Indeed, Mary Mary’s Tina Campbell finally addressed that open letter in support of 45 she shared in January in which she claimed, “I choose to believe that that same power that comes from Almighty God is at work in Mr. Donald Trump, and it will be used for the greater good of this nation and its people.”

Speaking with Karu Daniels, Mean Mary offered no apologies and stood steadfast in her support of Minute Maid Mao:

“I was faced with two presidential candidates that I really did not approve of,” Campbell elaborated. “And so I had to find something, a commonality with one of them, that would make me feel like if I have to vote, I should utilize my right to vote. Since I don’t prefer either of them, what can I find that would make me vote? And some of Donald Trump’s views on Christianity, honestly, is what caused me to vote for him.”

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Great. Now I can never stripper-kick to the chopped and screwed version of “God in Me” or cry to “Walking” on the sidewalk anymore.

What Christian views have been espoused by this racist, sexist and xenophobic devil she speaks of? I recall the time he mentioned “two Corinthians,” but outside of that, if we’re talking about any Christian in the race, it was the devout Methodist Hillary Clinton. There are white evangelical leaders who have spoken about 45’s relationship with Christianity, but whenever 45 himself talks about his purported faith, it’s largely about him getting a bunch of evangelical votes. Campbell provided no examples, so one assumes that she, much like white evangelical voters, is not basing her support of 45 on Christian principles.

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And like Jeffress, Campbell takes a rather passive response to protests of the president:

“So if I’m going to use my platform, my power, my voice, I ought to use it to pray for him. To pray that he would make wise decisions, that he would be true to the oath that he took, and to not incite fear by talking about everything that’s wrong, especially with people that’s my color,” she explained further.

They mirror similar opinions uttered by Donnie McClurkin, who in February told Tina Campbell’s sister, Erica Campbell:

I don’t want us to get caught up in this protest. The protests do nothing but rile [people] up. It causes people’s anger to rise up and it gives us a false sense of involvement.

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These are the musings of people who don’t have the slightest clue as to what in the fuck they’re talking about. It is especially disappointing to hear these remarks from black people given that the maliciousness stemming from this inherently racist and grossly incompetent administration impacts nonwhites the harshest.

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Who knew that prayer and protest couldn’t coexist with respect to dealing with a demagogue? Certainly not the Rev. William Barber, whose religious beliefs don’t discourage him from protesting injustice but actually motivate him to advocate on behalf of the voiceless through the protest movement known as Moral Mondays. But Barber actually tries to embody the virtues of Christianity rather than merely make money off the institution of it.

The sky is falling and people are dying and suffering in a variety of ways, thanks to the pussy grabber, who hates anyone not rich, male, straight and white and is propped up by a political party beholden to rich, straight white men. Any person of real moral fiber would not stand idle as people die from the cruelty of an imbecilic bigot whose moral compass mirrors the seven deadly sins. No real Christian would encourage black and brown people to be pacifists at a time like this.

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It’s unclear just how much worse things will get under 45’s time as president, but I will not forget or forgive those who dared to defend this devil under faux sanctimony. May the Holy Spirit slap some sense into them. If not, they can fuck off. God knows my heart and God also knows these people aren’t worth shit. Besides, that’s exactly how 45 speaks, and let these losers tell it, he’s a bastion of Christianity.